Wall Museum Book

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PALESTINIAN STORIES

ON THE WALL INBETHLEHEM

The Wall Museum

Culture and Palestine Series, Bethlehem

ARAB EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE

Copyright 2012 by AEI-Open Windows

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.


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The

Wall Museum

Palestinian stories on the Wall in Bethlehem

Once the area around Rachels Tomb, a pilgrimage place

for Moslems, Christians and Jews, was one of the liveli-est in Bethlehem. The Hebron Road connected Jerusalem

with Bethlehem, and its northern section was in fact the

busiest street in town. It was the gate from Jerusalem into

Bethlehem. After entering Bethlehem along the main road,

visitors either chose the direction to Hebron or the road to

the Church of Nativity.

The reality now is different. During the 1990s Rachels

Tomb developed into an Israeli military stronghold with

the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint close by. As such it

became the focus of Palestinian protests, especially during

the second Intifada after September 2000. In 2004-5 Israel

built Walls near the Tomb and a surrounding enclave, bothof which it had already annexed to Jerusalem. The Tomb

thus became forbidden territory to inhabitants of Bethle-

hem. In the course of time no less than 64 shops, garages,

and workshops along the Hebron Road closed their gates.

This was not just because of the ghting, shootings and

shelling going on during the second Intifada, but also be-

cause the area became desolate as a result of the Wall. Peo-

Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book

should be mailed to: AEI-Open Windows, [email protected]

Published in Bethlehem, Palestine, by the Arab Educational In-

stitute (AEI-Open Windows) as part of the Culture and Palestine

series.

The Wall Museum:

Palestinian stories on the Wall in Bethlehem

Photos: Fadi Abou Akleh

The Culture and Palestine series explores expressions of Pal-estinian culture, including popular customs, arts, traditional

and present-day stories, as well as writings and refections upon

Palestinian daily life.

www.aeicenter.org

Printed in Bethlehem, Palestine


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PALESTINIAN STORIES ON THE WALL IN BETHLEHEM The Wall Museum

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ple still remember that parents warned their children not

to visit the area with its imposing 8-9 meter high concrete

Wall almost twice as high as the Wall in Berlin.

Those inhabitants who did not want or could not leave the

area thought what to do. How to create life in a dead and

deadening environment?

Among different initiatives, the Arab Educational Institute,

member of the international peace movement Pax Christi,was advised by its members in that neighborhood to start

up cultural activities. In 2009 AEI opened the Sumud Story

House there, in which four women groups, including one

made up of women from the neighborhood, came together

for weekly meetings and various social activities. Among

those activities were cultural events like the formation of a

large human Bethlehem star; the singing and playing from

roofs and balconies along the streets; a concert from down

under a military watchtower; meditative and inter-religious

sessions, and the establishment of a womens choir per-

forming next to the Wall. In 2009 AEI launched the modest

but annual Sumud Festival in the area. Other Wall-torn cit-

ies, like Berlin and Belfast, provided models of inspiration.

The Wall Museum is the last stage of those imaginative

cultural activities. One side remark about the name: the use

of inverted commas around museum is on purpose. The

museum is not intended to become permanent. It is in fact

our hope that the Wall museum stories contribute to cracks

in the Wall, to its breaking down, and in fact to the collapse

of all Walls around us and around the Palestinian people in

particular. In other words, we hope that the Wall Museum

by its very success will once destroy itself.

In this context human stories shown on the posters can-

not have but a very special meaning. The fragile, human,

personal stories you read in this book stand in a stark and

comprehensive contrast to the concrete Wall. The personal

story humanizes, opens up, asks for human understanding,

whereas the Wall kills the environment, closes up, takes

away the human horizon, warehouses people behind theWall. By preserving human memory, the human story is a

challenge to the Wall.

The rst two groups of in total 60 stories, collected in this

volume, were attached to the Wall at Christmas 2011 and

in September 2012. They are stories of Palestinian women

from the three neighboring towns, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and

Beit Sahour, but also from villages around Bethlehem and

other places. The stories express a rejection of the Wall,

but show also the womens sumud or steadfastness; and the

human longing for the healing of home and the creation

and preservation of life over destruction. Moreover, the

stories give a sense of history and suggest the possibility

of change. Again this is in opposition to the Wall which

somehow suggests by its very appearance that change is

impossible. Last but not least the display of the human sto-

ries points to the will to reclaim the Palestinian story. This

story, as we all know, has long been denied by the many

stereotypes surrounding Palestinians, in a second layer of

seemingly impenetrable walls.


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The stories have been partly collected from publications

and interviews out of the nearby Sumud Story House. Most

of them have been written down by the women groups in

the House. In the future, more stories will become part of

the museum: youth stories, stories of landowners whose

land near Bethlehem has been expropriated or made inac-

cessible; stories of refugees from nearby Aida camp and

elsewhere who lost their land during the Nakba [disaster] in

1948 and afterwards. They together recall the tragic story

of the Palestinian people as a whole as well as its story ofresilience. The personal stories converge into community

stories and into a national story.

It is the texts of the stories but also their context which

make this museum special. The stories are presently at-

tached to the Wall and some to military blocks. In the future

they will be also xed on barbed wire, or, in smaller format,

on the bars of a corridor at the entrance of a checkpoint.

By its very setting, the story is a statement of saying no to

occupation and all the restrictions on the freedom of move-

ment in ones own country.

The Museum is still very much in construction. Its ongo-

ing, with new ideas coming. Some of those ideas will comefrom the community around the museum which already

gave suggestions about the content and place of the posters,

and who encourage us to continue. Others come from visi-

tors or volunteers.

The Museum is not only embedded in the local community.

It is also a community project within an international circle.

The posters are sponsored by individuals and institutions

many of whom are from abroad. We would like to thank

Church in Action, Cordaid, and the many individuals and

groups who sponsored the posters and whose names are

mentioned on the posters themselves.

We further thank Sabeel-Netherlands and Dutch individual

volunteers for their plan to publish a book in 2013 with the

present posters translated in Dutch. We also wish to thank

the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Peace in Pal-estine and Israel (EAPPI), a project of the World Council

of Churches, who helped the museum by the very fact of

being present during the xing of the posters.

Arab Educational Institute / Sumud Story House

Bethlehem

October 2012

P.S. In case you yourself are interested to sponsor one or

more future poster(s), please contact [email protected] with a

cc to [email protected]. Thanks in advance!


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SUMUD STORY HOUSE

SumudStory House, www.aeicenter.org

A holy place for Christians, Moslems

and Jews, Rachels Tomb is located

inside Bethlehem town along the

traditional Jerusalem-Hebron road.Although originally the Oslo Accords

included it in Area A (under Palestinian

control), Rachels Tomb at the end

became part of Area C (under Israeli

control).

CONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL

CONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL

EXISTING FENCECONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL

AIDA CAMPRACHELS TOMB


During the second Intifada from

September 2000 on, Rachels Tomb

became a focal point of clashes. A wall

and tower were built. In 2003, the Israeli

government ordered the de facto

annexation of Rachel's Tomb in

violation of international law. The tomb

became enclosed within the Jerusalem

municipal boundaries. In summer 2005,the illegal 8-10 meter high Wall was

built around Rachels Tomb and an

adjacent military base. The tomb is now

connected to Jerusalem by a road

isolated from the environment. It cannot

be reached from Bethlehem.

Visitors to Rachels Tomb, early 20th century


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During the 1930s, British soldiers making checks

Rachels Tomb in 1944

During the 1960s before the Israeli occupation


Rachels Tomb after the Israeli occupation in 1967

During the 1990s

Rachels Tomb area during the building of the Wall, 2003


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PALESTINIAN STORIES ON THE WALL IN BETHLEHEM

Wall Museum Book

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